1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hair clip, and more particularly to a hair clip for holding or retaining a strand of a hair in a particular style, wherein the hair clip has an improved structure in which a separated hair is securely held in place so that the hair may not easily fall off from the hair clip, thereby facilitating hair styling, while the hair clip may not leave a mark on the hair during or after the hair styling and the hair may be easily sectioned off without a need to separate upper and lower clips by using the extended lower clip.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, hair clips are used to separate a hair for work at home or a hair salon to tame or style the hair, for example, hair cutting or hair coloring. The hair clips have an elongated arm to clip the hair.
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional hair clip 10 includes an upper clip 11 and a lower clip 21. Each of the upper and lower clips 11 and 21 has a curvature at a head portion thereof. The upper clip 11 includes a curved part 11-1, a supporting part 11-2 and a bracket 11-3 positioned between the curved part 11-1 and the supporting part 11-2. The curved part 11-1, the supporting part 11-2 and the bracket 11-3 are integrally formed with each other to provide the upper clip 11.
The lower clip 21 has a shape that corresponds to that of the upper clip 11. The lower clip 21 includes a curved part 21-1, a supporting part 21-2 and a bracket 21-3 positioned between the curved part 21-1 and the support part 21-2. The curved part 21-1, the supporting part 21-2 and the bracket 21-3 are integrally formed with each other to provide the lower clip 21.
A rivet R is installed by inserting the rivet R through a connection hole formed on each of the brackets 11-3 and 21-3. A spring S is positioned on the axis of the rivet R so that the upper clip 11 and the lower clip 21 are opened by complimentary finger grips.
The distance between the curved part 11-1 of the upper clip 11 and the curved part 21-1 of the lower clip 21 increases along the direction toward the supporting part 21-2 depending on a method of formation and installation of the brackets 11-3 and 21-3 (see “A” in FIG. 1).
Since the prior art hair clip 100 has the elongated curved parts 11-1 and 21-1, the prior art hair clip 100 has the following disadvantages in separating and holding the hair.
Front end portions of the curved parts 11-1 and 21-1 of the upper and lower clips 11 and 21 have a smaller spacing distance therebetween so that the hair can be easily sectioned off at the front end portions thereof. However, a larger spacing distance exists between the curved parts 11-1 and 22-1 at a rear end portion thereof due to the presence of the brackets 11-3 and 21-3 so that grip strength at the rear end portion is weak.
Therefore, the hair selected to be clipped may fall off from the hair clip and easily become tangled.
As a result, a user may experience difficulties in styling or coloring a hair and may need to use an additional hair clip to prevent such problem.
In addition, since the hair clip is made of synthetic resins, i.e., plastic, a bent mark may be left on the hair after hair styling.
FIG. 2 illustrates a conventional hair clip that attempts to resolve such problems described above.
The hair clip 1 includes a pair of clip pieces 2 and 3 facing each other, a pressing plate 2a and 3a formed integrally with the clip pieces 2 and 3, respectively, brackets 2b and 3b formed at edges of the pressing plates 2a and 3a, and a hinge pin 1p to be inserted into pin holes 2h and 3h of the brackets 2b and 3b for connecting the clip pieces together.
The hair clip 1 also has a coil spring 1s inserted into the hinge pin 1p to provide elastic force for opening and closing the clip pieces 2 and 3. The aforementioned structure represents a basic configuration of a hair clip in general.
In addition to the above known structure, the conventional hair clip 1 includes a finger 4 connected to a free end 2e of the upper clip piece 2. The length of the upper clip piece 2 is shortened by the length of the finger 4 compared with the length of the lower clip piece 3.
The finger 4 is connected to the upper clip piece 2 by insertion of a pin 2p with a coil spring into the pin holes 2h′ of the brackets 2d formed at the free end 2e portion of the upper clip piece 2 and into the pin holes 4h formed in the finger 4.
The finger 4 is therefore pivoted with respect to the upper clip piece 2. At a Y-shaped diverging rear end portion 4b of the finger 4 is a guide loop 5 connected by a connecting means to prevent the hair from entering the gap in the joint portion L of the finger 4.
The rear end 5b of the square-bent guide loop 5 is supported when arranged in certain positions in the hair clip 1. Further, teeth 4t in a wave form are formed at the edges on both sides of the bottom portion of the finger 4 for use in holding hair.
The upper clip piece 2 has a laterally extending hold eye 2g on the side of upper clip piece 2, the hold eye 2g being positioned close to the brackets 2b for the insertion of the guide loop 5. A concavity portion 2c is formed at the bottom of the upper clip piece 2 to secure a hair clipping space. The remainder of the bottom portion has teeth 2t in a wave form to hold the hair of the user.
The lower clip piece 3 is in a narrow, long form, and slightly curves in the longitudinal direction. The lower clip piece 3 is brought into contact with the end 4a of the finger 4 at its fore end portion.
As a means to connect the guide loop 5 to the rear end portion 4b of the finger 4, partially cut-open pin holes 4g are provided.
The partially cut-open pin holes 4g are at the Y-shape diverging rear end portion 4b of the finger 4. At the connecting portion 5a on either side of the guide loop 5 is a U-shaped indent 5u into which the rear end portion 4b of the finger 4 is inserted.
A pin 5p is provided in the indent 5u in an integral form. The pins 5p are pushed into the pin holes 4g at the rear end portion 4b of the finger 4 through the cut-open portion of the pin holes 4g. In this manner, the pins 5p are connected smoothly with the pin holes 4g by the elasticity of the material of the finger 4. After the connection, the connecting portions 5a of the guide loop 5 do not fall off the rear end portion 4b of the finger 4 unless manual force is applied to separate them.
In the hair clip described above, when a hair is clipped, the hair is secured by the connecting portions 5a, thereby pivoting the hair clip. Accordingly, the upper clip piece 2 as well as the finger 4 engaged with the connecting portions 5a are pivoted to secure the hair.
The pivoted finger 4 prevents the hair from falling off from the hair clip. However, the finger 4 of the hair clip described above is configured to be movable so that, in case of a customer having a scarce hair, the hair may fall off from one side of the hair clip and thus may not be securely held.
Also, the hair clip has a structure in which multiple components are connected via a hinge connection. Such structure adds complexity and cost to the manufacture process.
Further, since multiple components are interconnected to operate, if one component is defective, the whole device may become inoperable.
Another hair clip is illustrated in FIG. 3. The hair clip of FIG. 3 includes an upper clip 10, a finger member 20, a pressing member 30, a variable spring 40 and a lower clip 50. The upper clip 10 includes a first curved part 11, having hinge holes 11a positioned on both sides of the first curved part 11, spring support holes 11b positioned in a longitudinal direction of the first curved part 11, a pressing plate 12 on which a protrusion 12a is formed, and a bracket 13 having connection holes 13a on both side portions thereof. The finger member 20 includes support holes 22 on both side portions thereof, the finger member 20 being pivotable about a fixed axis 21 by being inserted into the hinge holes 11a of the upper clip 10. The pressing unit 30 includes a support protrusion 31 formed on one end thereof, which is inserted into the support holes 22 of the finger member 20, and a support step 32 formed on the other end thereof, which is guided into a lower portion of the protrusion 12a of the upper clip 10. The pressing unit 30 further includes a plurality of support units 33 formed on a bottom side thereof in a longitudinal direction to hold the hair. The variable spring 40 has both end portions that are engaged with the support holes 11b of the upper clip 10 and a square-bent portion of the variable spring 40 is positioned closely to a lower portion of the finger member 20 to provide elasticity to the finger member 20 when the finger member 20 is pivoted, depending on an amount of a clipped hair. The lower clip 50 includes a second curved part 51 having a curvature with respect to the pressing unit 30 in correspondence with the upper clip 10. The lower clip 50 further includes a torsion spring S formed on one side of the second curved part 51 so that the bracket 13 of the upper clip 10 is pivotable with respect to the torsion spring S. Also, the lower clip 50 includes a bracket 52 having a connection hole 52a to which a rivet R is inserted and a supporting plate 53 corresponding to the pressing plate 12 of the upper clip 10 that is formed on one end of the lower clip 50.
However, in the hair clip described above, the finger 4 is configured to be movable so that, in case of a customer having a scarce hair, the hair may fall off from one side of the hair clip. Therefore, it may be difficult to firmly hold the hair.
In addition, since the hair clip has a structure in which the variable spring 40, which is engaged with the finger member 20, pushes the finger member 20 upwardly, one ends of the upper and the lower clips are not attached sufficiently close to each other, thereby causing the hair falling away from one side of the hair clip.
Also, the hair clip has a structure in which multiple components are connected via a hinge connection. Such structure adds complexity and cost to the manufacture process.
Further, since multiple components are interconnected to operate, if one component is defective, the whole device may become inoperable.
Still further, in order to section off the hair, the upper and lower clips need to be separated in order to use a front end portion of the lower clip in sectioning off the hair, which causes great inconvenience.
Still further, since the spring positioned between the upper and lower clips is brought into a direct contact with the hair, if the spring rusts, it may stain the hair.
Still further, since the supporting piece 33 is formed on the pressing member 30, a hair is pressed against by the supporting piece 33 and becomes bent.